Oldest personally know relative?

[Rash]

Known!

I remember my great grand dad born in 1879 (I was only 5 when he passed).  That's only 3 years after Custers last stand.  I had another great grand dad pass in 1974, so I remember him more.  I had a grand dad pass in 1991, that was born in 1905. He told me the first time he seen an airplane in 1920.

[uptown]

My great grandma born in 1900. She passed on in 1999. One story I really remember her telling me is about the time she was playing by the side of this road at her families country home, when all of the sudden this loud contraption came over the hill. She was terrified and ran off screaming as it drove by.   That was her first encounter with an automobile.

I was always amazed at all the stuff she'd seen for the first time during her life. 2 world wars, the first cars to come out, going from using oil lamps to electric, TV, all the way to the space shuttle. It would have been an interesting era to grow up in.

[RTHolmes]

my grandma was born in 1898, it used to amaze me that what I regarded as "history" was stuff that she saw happen. she remembered as a young woman going into town on a saturday morning in a horse-drawn buggy (!) and seeing lots of men* from her village dressed in uniform marching in the same direction along the side of the road. most of them never got to march back to their village ...


* thinking back, she actually said "boys" not "men"

[Tupac]

My great uncle Clyde was born in 1905 and passed away in 2009

[Rash]

My grandfather born in 1905, started most of his stories on a horse, wagon or buggy.  Riding in the wagon full of grain, they smuggled whiskey.

[Rash]

School only went to the 8th grade, and he said he went back to teach after planting or harvest seasons to keep busy.

[guncrasher]

Known!

I remember my great grand dad born in 1879 (I was only 5 when he passed).  That's only 3 years after Custers last stand.  I had another great grand dad pass in 1974, so I remember him more.  I had a grand dad pass in 1991, that was born in 1905. He told me the first time he seen an airplane in 1920.

my father's mom's mom passed away in 1980.  i was 16 at the time.  she was born in 1888 and used to tell me stories about the mexican revolution and how her husband had fought with pancho villa and she followed him to war.  she was what it's called a "soldadera".  usually the wife or girlfriend of the soldier that walked with him and would come in and take care of him if he got wounded in battle.  she hated pancho villa as she said he was one cold killer who wouldnt think twice of burning people alive as that was his favorite form of execution.  my great grandpa I dont rememer him he died in 1968 when i was four.  but before the war he worked for a landowner and he sometimes had the task of going into a room in the barn and with a shovel throw gold coins up in the air so they wouldnt get moldy.  my grandma said that it was a task that would take him hours as the room had thousands and thousands of coins.

  she was also part german and lost four cousins who fought in the german navy.  5 left went to war when they were called only 1 came back the other four nobody knows what happened to them.  her own son moved to the US in 1942 or 1943 cant remember looking for work.  last she heard of him he had been drafted and was going to a place called europe.  she never heard of him again.  I guess he died somewhere in Europe as he never came home.


semp

[Pigslilspaz]

My oldest relative is my great grandma, and she's still alive and kickin. Can't really recall when she was born, but was some time about the mid late 20's. During WWII she worked in a bomb factory, while her husband was in the cavalry in the pacific (he was one of the first into Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. He passed away when I was 5 so I can't ask him unfortunately.)

[bj229r]

3 of my grandparents were born in 1897, the eldest, 1892. most recent passed in '89

[Rash]

Great pig, maybe your grandma and my grandma knew each other during WW11?  My grandmother made bombs too!  Actually not bombs, she made shells that shot airplanes out of the sky.  Ack Ack factory in Kansas.

[Rash]

Her husband (my granddad) worked on the Manhattan project.  My dad was 6 when the war started, then they sent dad to live in Steam Boat springs Colorado to live with an aunt and uncle during the war.  My granddad didn't make A bombs, he built buildings.

[icepac]

My grandmom lived to 96 and was hit on by thomas edison when she worked for him.

[MiloMorai]

As of today my parents, dad almost 90 and mom 92.

Their parents seen some amazing stuff from man flying to man going to the moon. I don't think any other generation will see such a leap in technology.

[mbailey]

My Grandmother Born in 1889 Passed in 1991

Benjamin Harrison was president

She was.......22 when the Titanic sunk
She was.......42 when Japan Bombed Pearl


Hard to wrap my mind around what she saw in her life time..........neat thread OP 

 

[colmbo]

My fathers father was born in 1885, grandmother in 1880s or 1890s.

Mom's mother came across Kansas in a Conestoga.